Employers Still in Denial About the New Normal of Fed-Up Low Wage Workers

[BeckyDem]

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Yves Smith

Perhaps I am reading overmuch into an in-passing observation at a new Wall Street Journal story on the continuing high quit rate in jobs deemed to be low level by virtue of being not terribly well paid, irrespective of the actual skill level involved. But it ring so true that I think not. It effectively says that employers have not adjusted to the fact that in an era when going to work means risking life and limb, aka Covid hazards, they need to be treated better, as in more pay, more respect, more perks like sick days.

The Wall Street Journal article, As American Workers Leave Jobs in Record Numbers, a Closer Look at Who Is Quitting, not only presents some new data on these departures, but also makes clear that there’s no end in sight for higher turnover. This tidbit is important because it flies in the face of what managers and investors want to believe: that adults need paychecks, that even if they refuse work (or even merely try to refuse work that they deem to be beneath them) that sooner rather than later, strained finances will force them to relent. Apparently they haven’t met many guerrilla grazers.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/11/employers-still-in-denial-about-the-new-normal-of-fed-up-low-wage-workers.html


( Long and worth the time to read. I am retired and stand with the quitters.)

[SarcasticSatyr]

1. I wish I was closer to early retirement, but I'm struggling ...

and no easy solution in sight ... take a shit job or ?

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. We may be seeing an undeclared general strike

Employers were spoiled by a generation of labor surplus. The Baby Boomers are retiring.

There are a large number of policy options that could effectively address the reality of this demographic shift, but virtually all of them are strongly opposed by conservatives. If you want more people participating in the labor force we need to:

- Higher wages and better benefits
- More rights for workers
- A safer, more civilized working environment
- Have affordable Child care.
- Higher education and job training without crushing debt.
- 21st century infrastructure
- More emigration

That last item is fairly obvious but a huge hot-button for the xenophobic.

[ck4829]

4. K&R